The Death of Emmeline Vance
by Snapelover11
Summary: Little known character Emmeline Vance was murdered in HBP. This is my version of her last moments. One Shot.


**_Disclaimer: I own nothing here. I am not making any money from this fic._**

**The Death of Emmeline Vance**

_One Shot_

It was the secrecy sensory that alerted her first. The buzzing began softly and within moments, it emitted a high pitched wale.

Emmeline had but moments to decide where to go. She couldn't go to Headquarters. It was vacated after Sirius' death. She could go to Hogwarts. Yes, she would go and find Dumbledore there. But she had charmed the house with an anti-apparition spell. She would have to go outside.

Emmeline was reaching for her shawl as her door exploded into small wooden fragments. The blast lifted her from her feet and threw her against the wall, where she slid to the floor. Her head was in her hands as she silently begged the powers that be to spare her. She heard footsteps.

"Ms. Vance. You don't mind if we stop in for a cuppa do you?" It was a male voice. Deep and low that she did not recognize. More footsteps crunched the remnants of the wooden door. She heard muffled laughter and then silence.

No one said a word as one last pair of feet came walking over the threshold of her door. They were slow and calculated steps that shook her to her soul. Fear gripped her heart like an iron vice. She felt her body began to tremble as she reached for her wand.

"Stand Ms. Vance." His voice was cool and relaxed. She swallowed hard to try and make the bile that was rising in her throat go back down. "I said to stand." It was as if she was picked up by two very strong hands and hurled up against the wall.

As her head crashed into the wall, making her see stars, she dropped her wand.

"There. Now we can speak face to face." Her vision cleared and she looked into the face of Lord Voldemort.

He was just as vile, just as wicked, as she remembered him from years ago. His pale face was set with a grim smile and his cold red eyes bore into her very soul. He was going to kill her, she knew that. But not without a fight.

"Really? You wish to fight me Ms. Vance? How very noble of you. What a wonderful way to go. Pretending that your last deed on this earth will matter. Sentimental…" he stood but feet from her and she tried hard to control her breathing. Lord Voldemort bent over and picked up her wand and twirled in in his hands.

"Interesting…" was all he said before he handed it to her. "Go on Ms. Vance. If you are to fight to the death, then by all means, you will need all the help you can get." Emmeline snatched her wand from his grasp as quick as she could. She held it aloft, pointed at his face. The Death eaters that filled the room laughed.

"I will curse you into the Hell you belong Tom Riddle!" Her voice shook with mingled fury and fear. Lord Voldemort eyed the tip of her wand and her face before turning his back to her.

"I could…let you live Ms. Vance. If you give me some much needed information." He turned to face her again.

"I will tell you nothing." She said through clenched teeth. Her mind was turning a mile a minute. How had they found her? How could all of the steps they had taken fail like this? How would she survive?

"I will tell you how you can survive Ms. Vance. First, you will tell me who the secret keeper to the Order of the Phoenix is and where to find them. Second, you will tell me where I can find Potter. And third…you will pledge allegiance to me." His eyes, red like blood, stared her down. His mouth was still set in a serene smile, but she noticed that he now had his wand in his hand.

"Never. I will tell you nothing." She said. Her voice shook more than even she realized.

"Are you quite sure Ms. Vance? You are formidable. I can see that. We could use someone like you, someone strong and capable. No? Alright… _Crucio_!"

Her body was on fire. She heard screams and very vaguely was aware that they were hers. She felt her body make contact with the cool, hard floor. But it did nothing but increase the pain. Her head was on the verge of explosion and then…

Then it wasn't.

Emmeline turned her head and coughed as she gagged for a breath. She raised herself up on all fours and breathed deeply. She was aware of the Death eaters, including Lord Voldemort, laughing as she struggled to reach her feet.

She stood and faced her attackers with eyes blazing in anger. She slowly pointed her wand back at Lord Voldemort. The laughter stopped.

"My…you are a strong one. Tell me, do you wish to repeat that? Or will you reconsider?" Emmeline was ready this time. Instead of answering him, she had just enough time to deflect another Cruciatus Curse silently. An onlooker would have just seen two people flicking their wands at one another. The room became deathly silent.

"Impressive." Lord Voldemort hissed. The serene smile was erased from his mouth and his lips pressed together in frustration.

"Other Order members will be here shortly _Tom_. Do you wish to see Dumbledore again? Perhaps your former Professor still puts a little fear in that black heart of yours?" Emmeline felt the anger building up inside of her. She watched as a few Death eaters looked at each other and a few others raise their wands. Her breathing was fast and deep as she made the decision to fight. She knew she was dead. She knew the moment the door exploded that her time now was borrowed. So she might as well….

She quickly redirected her wand tip to the nearest Death eater and fired a binding spell. Three Death eaters were now wrapped together in cords as thick as a tree trunks. She had but a moment to duck as a jet of green light flew past her head and blasted the wall behind her. Flames now were eating the very walls of her home. She sent an _Expelliarmus_ towards Lord Voldemort, who flicked it away from him as if swatting a fly.

But she only did that to buy herself another moment of time. She was huddled behind a large chair and she pointed her wand from behind it and basted a _Reducto_ curse at the wall nearest Lord Voldemort. Another one of her walls came tumbling down on top of two Death eaters and Lord Vldemort. Emmeline ran from behind her chair and almost made it to the other room but she was caught around the ankles by something thick and strong.

She looked down and saw her feet were now bound together by none other than Lord Voldemort's pet Snake. She pointed her wand at the snake's face, who was posed to strike her, but her wand flew from her hands just when she was going to rid the world of the repulsive thing.

The snake squeezed tighter and began to wrap itself around her legs. Tighter and tighter it squeezed until she felt the bones in her knee caps pop. Pain beyond any other she felt for a brief moment. The snake tightened it's grip on her ankles and she heard the bones snap. She fell side ways, landing rather brutally on her elbow. She looked down, her mouth open in a silent scream, as she saw her foot sitting at an odd angle.

"Now, now Nagini…we don't want to kill her…yet." Emmeline was almost blinded by the pain. Her vision was becoming blurry as Lord Voldemort approached her.

Her eyes met his defiantly. Her body trembled with hate and with pain. He seemed to be communicating with the snake, because they were looking into each others eyes. She watched, as the snake uncoiled itself from her legs and slithered out the front door.

Lord Voldemort eyed her obviously broken ankle and knees. He held still, her wand in his right hand, and his own in his left.

"We are leaving now Ms. Vance." With those words, he turned his back to her and walked from the house. For one fleeting moment, she thought they were leaving her here. Her heart flexed in her chest with relief, but was quickly squashed when she saw three Death eaters approached her and cast a binding spell on her.

"Wouldn't want you to escape now, would we?" One said. Two strong arms gripped her under her arms and pulled her to her feet. Pain seared through her body. She tried to hop along on one good foot, but the Death eaters that surrounded her kept poking and prodding her to move faster. She almost fell twice and was rewarded by a kick in her good leg.

Emmeline was taken outside where a rather large Death Eaters scooped her into his arms and held to apparate. In the instant before they left, Emmeline saw it.

Two of the remaining Death eaters were sending something green into the sky, over her house.

With a groan like an injured animal she knew then that all of her hope was lost. They had cast the Dark Mark and the Order will think she was already dead.

She closed her eyes so they couldn't see the tears.

She felt the familiar pulling sensation and then it was gone.

She and the remaining Death eaters were now standing in a house, a muggle house. The furniture was old and decrepit. She was thrown, unceremoniously on a battered, smelly rug. Her clothes were torn and dirty, her hair a frightful mess. Her foot was swelling very quickly, but at least the pain had become manageable. The fear and hatred that coursed through her body fed her desire to fight and stay alive as long as she could. She would never give up. It was not in her.

"Welcome, Ms. Vance. To my father's home, now my home." Her eyes slowly found the source of the voice and saw Lord Voldemort sitting in a chair by the fire. His disgusting snake coiled around the legs of the chair.

Emmeline could not stand any longer, but she sat up a little straighter. And met his horrific red eyes once more.

"Ms. Vance, I wish to ask you now if you would change your mind. Now we have the freedom of time…I can take all the time in the world for you to change your mind." He chuckled to himself as if he made a clever joke. Emmeline glared at him and refused to speak or cry out for mercy. For she knew that that was what he wanted.

"I have acquired many faithful and loyal servants Ms. Vance…over the period since my miraculous return. Many are falling over themselves to do my bidding and help me achieve my goals. I reward them…with their hearts desires. Did you know that? You must have thought me horrible and cruel, didn't you? Yes…it is true. Sometimes we must be willing to break a few eggs to make an omelet. Listen to me…I am straying from my own thoughts. Ms. Vance, I am aware that Albus Dumbledore is up to something. I would very much like to know….what it is he is working so tirelessly on. Why he doesn't share it with the whole of the Order? And why…tell me why does he insist on defying me? He knows I can best him. I almost did just recently in the Department of Mysteries…where my loyal Death Eaters failed to accomplish their task…" His words died away as his gaze moved to eye a few Death eaters that stood in the shadows. They all rustled uncomfortably and looked everywhere but at him.

Emmeline knew why they had failed. Harry Potter and his friends.

"Yes. Harry Potter thwarted them…it was a disgrace. But those that failed are now being punished. Forced to be removed from their master and Lord. They sit alone in Azkaban…waiting. Now, Ms. Vance…" He shifted in his chair and leaned forward toward Emmeline. "Will you join us?" The last words came out as a hiss and Emmeline recoiled away from the revolting sight before her. Her lips were white and her face as pale as death. However, she threw her shoulders back and raised her chin and met his eyes.

"You are lower than even the most disgusting creature on this earth _Tom Riddle_. Your followers follow you out of fear, not love. They will turn on you…_yes they will_. Just as many of them did after your much appreciated departure the first time. And Albus Dumbledore does not share his plans with us all because we trust him. With our lives we trust each other. Love each other. And respect each other. Those things you will never understand you ignorant, self absorbed retched over grown child! Many of us had horrible childhoods…you, you are so _weak_ that you had to resort to…to this life to feel a powerful man. It is terribly sad and a shame. You will never be able to understand the likes of Albus Dumbledore. For you and he function under much different labors. And as for the glorious Harry Potter? If this is what he is like as a child, imagine him as a grown wizard Tom…I daresay…you haven't seen the whole of _anything_ yet." Emmeline's body was shaking as she finished her speech. Everything that was in her heart, everything she had longed to say was now out on the stage. Her audience, the most evil of all wizards. His eyes were but slits of red and his face was hard as stone.

"_Crucio_!" Emmeline was thrown back to the floor an every joint in her body was cracking and popping. The fire ate at her insides as she felt her self vomit. Her broken foot lashed around and it added to the already intense pain. It seemed to go on forever…

She must have blacked out.

When she opened she was laying flat on her back. Her broken and bruised legs lay curled to one side and her face to another. As she focused her eyes, she was met with the vision of feet. Black shoes and black robes. Her eyes traveled up to his face…

"Ms. Vance, before you die…would you like to know how we broke through your defenses? It is a wonderful tale, and one I think, would be a nice vision for you to die with." Emmeline could only stare up as she lay on the floor. He had a sneer on his face and he was pointing his wand at her as he spoke.

"Like Dumbleore, my dear Ms. Vance, I have loyal servants who love me too. Servants who will go…undercover to do my bidding. Servants close to that fool of a man Dumbledore. Servants who pass information to me. Know this as you die…not everyone of that old fool's trusted entourage are loyal to him. In fact…the one you all most rely on for news of me…is in fact a loyal Death Eater. That's right, Ms. Vance…My most trusted and loyal servant Severus Snape was the one who was able to tell me where you were. One should never trust a true Slytherin…"

Emmeline's eyes grew wide in grief. Snape. He was lying to them all and she would die knowing the truth before anyone could ever know. The pain in her chest, her heartache, was more intense than her physical pain. Her eyes were clouded with tears as she heard his voice break the silence.

"_Avada Kedavra_!"

She saw green…then she saw no more.

A message was sent to the Order that the Dark Mark was seen over Emmeline's home. By the time the Order had gotten there, half of the house was in flames and the other was a complete wreck.

It seemed that she put up a wonderful fight, but lost in the end.

Poor Emmeline. Loyal friend and trusted member of the Order of the Phoenix died fighting an evil many can not comprehend. She died fighting and she died true to the cause.

Later that evening, a toast for Emmeline was said quietly, in hushed whispers, as Order members all over England remembered a devoted friend. A loyal Order member. And a formidable witch.

Everyone's thoughts were the same.

They hoped that one day, her death and all the rest, would be avenged.


End file.
